Trieste will once again be the capital of science-fiction from the 30th October to the 3rd November 2013 with the 13th edition of “Trieste Science+Fiction”, an international event organised by La Cappella Underground in the regional capital, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Science Fiction Fesival this year.
“Trieste Science+Fiction”, the new science fiction festival, established in 2000, thanks to the support of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, is an event dedicated to the exploration of fantastical worls, experimental styles and new technologies in the production of cinema, television, visual arts and shows.
The main venue of “Trieste Science+Fiction”, after last year’s successful experience, will be Sala Tripcovich, thanks to the collaboration of the Municipality of Trieste and the Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi. The adjacent building of the Casa del Cinema, main venue of the city’s principal cinematic associations, will be the main headquarters of the organisation and with the collaboration of Teatro Miela it will host some sections of the festival.
Furthermore, in the restored exhibition space of the Magazzino delle Idee there will be a show of iconographic material open to the public, with thecollaboration of the Region of Trieste, from the 25th October to the 17th November. This will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “International Science Fiction Film Festival”, whose first edition took place in Trieste in 1963 and over twenty years, until 1982 hosted guests such as Forrest J Ackerman, Arthur C Clarke, Roger Corman, Unberto Eco, Riccardo Freda, Frederik Pohl and Bertrand Tavernier in the capital of Fruili Venezia Giulia.
At Venice Film Festival, the organisers of “Trieste Science+Fiction” festival spread the new official look and the first previews of the 2013 programme. The festival’s poster is an original design created by the illustrator and cartoonist, who is himself from Trieste, Mario Alberti. Alberti was an illustrator for the publishing company Bonelli on various comics from the series by Nathan Never and Legs Weaver, then an artist with Luca Enoch for the Morgana series for the guys at the French publisher Les Humanoides Associes. He was then a freelancer for DC Comics for several covers of Aquaman, Wonderwoman, Dr. Fate and Shadowpact. For Marvel, he created the covers of the limited editions of X-Men & Spider-Man and Spider-Man & The Fantastic Four. More recently he was among the creators of Les Chroniques de Légion, written by Fabien Nury for the French publishers Glenat, and this year he worked on the first book of Cutting Edge, written by Francesco Dimitri and published by Delcourt.
Also in the 2013 edition, cinema will be at the heart of the party, with national and international previews of the best productions in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. The Official Selection will present two international competitions: independent filmmakers from all over the world will compete for the Asteroid Prize for the best feature length science-fiction film. The other is the contest for the Méliès D’Argento Prize for the best fantasy film and the best short film; organised in collaboration with the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation.
Among the films that will be presented in previews for Official Selection are: Real (Riaru), sci-fi drama directed by the Japanese master, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, based on the bestselling novel “A Perfect Day for Plesiosaur” by Rokuro Inui; Rio 2096 (Uma História de Amor e Fúria) by Luiz Bolognesi, an animated film that follows the story of Brazil, 1500 years in the future, which has already won the prestigious Cristal Prize at the Annecy Festival; The Desert (El desierto), a feature length film debut by German Christoph Behl, produced and filmed in Argentina and loosely inspired by the theatre production “No Exit” by Jean Paul Sartre, set in a post-apocalyptic world; and Across the River (Oltre il guado), new and original foray into the world of fantasy-horror for the director from Friuli, Lorenzo Bianchini, an independent production filmed in the woods on the border between Italy and Slovenia, in the Topolò area.
In the Classix section, this year’s tribute is dedicated to The Man Who Fell to Earth (L’Uomo che cade sulla Terra, 1976), a masterpiece of science fiction cinema, by the director Nicolas Roeg, with David Bowie in the leading role, based on the novel of the same name by Walter Travis from 1963, a new digital copy of which will be shown in its complete version.
And finally, the unmissable meetings, from the Nocturno Prize for breakout directors, the Urania d’Argento Lifetime Prize for a great artist in the field of fantasy, to the masterclasses organised with the University of Trieste and special events dedicated to comics and literature. On the mornings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of November, the Magazzino delle Idee will host the Futurology Meetings, a new thematic space between science and science-fiction.
